Roomates (YB Uni AU)

3 Its Not Home

"Glad to see you finally learned how to drive."
"It's like you don't want me to be nice to you. Come on. Front seats reserved for you now so get in." I got in after him and put my belt on "I'm gonna pay for this food shop. Then we go half's there on out okay? Unless it's small things mid week, like you come home with chocolate. We're not splitting that." He started the car up and turned to me "Okay?"
"Feel like I don't have a choice." I joked, making him smile and shake his head
"Nope. Im paying, end of."
"So how come you ended up going to Doncaster uni?"
"Where I'm from innit." He pulled out of the carpark and was focusing on the road, so I started looking out the window "Plus my grades were shit so no big uni would take me. Don't need their pretentious name on my degree anyway."
"Makes sense."
"What about you. What brings you from Manchester to here?" I was confused for a second, but I concluded he'd picked up on my very distinctive accent
"Fresh start. But still north."
"The North is the best, I agree with you on that."
"Tried down south. Hated it. But I got to meet you so I'd argue it was worth the move back."
"Ditto." He said, turning the radio on "You don't mind do you?"
"Not at all. Be my guest."
"There's a CD in there. Think it's david Bowie. I'm unsure since the drove here was pretty silent and I've not been out besides to lectures." I looked up at him "I can feel you looking at me. I'm alright. Just liked being away from everyone yknow, like they wasn't interrogating me." I looked down at my hands "Not you. I like you."
"But I did kind of interrogate you the other day." He chuckled
"I initiated that conversation. You weren't filming me from across the room or shoving a notepad in my face hoping desperately to get me back to who I was. You just liked me." He smiled at me briefly whilst we stopped at the lights, though I could tell he was frustrated with the way people had treated him
"Can we make something for our tea tonight?"
"Our?" He questioned
"Oh. Just thought you'd...nevermind it's stupid-"
"I'm messing with you. I'd love to eat with you tonight. We'll get the stuff now." He pulled into the car park of the supermarket "Told you it wasn't far. Cmon. I'll let you pick." He got out of the car, moving round to my side and opening the door. He held his hand out once I'd closed the door and I took it softly in mine "I'll show you round."

"Hey stranger." I jumped and saw dom waiting as I came out of the lecture hall
"You scared me you dick." He laughed at me
"Revenge for not telling me we were in the same class."
"But you read my timetable so you would know." I reasoned, beginning to walk out
"But you didn't tell me." He emphasised, following me
"Didn't come up." I smirked knowing I was annoying him being so petty "Anyway. You ready for food or do you wanna wait."
"Was thinking maybe we could make it together yknow?" He seemed a little shy and I had to admit I thought it was kinda cute
"Yeah. We can do that if you want." I gently touched the side of his face with the back of my hand, making him smile but he didn't say anything about it, instead just carrying on along our walk back "Adam could come round. Tom too if you like?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. Be nice to get to know them. Unless you want to avoid them coming over the whole time we're living together." He shook his head
"No. It'll be fun. I'll text them, let them know if they want tacos."
"If they don't then they can bring their own food." He laughed at me and pulled his phone out of his pocket, stopping in his tracks. I wasn't having the impromptu stop and grabbed his wrist, making him almost drop his phone. He managed to grip it though and sighed with relief "Come on. We can text them when we're home."
"It's not home though, is it?" He mumbled as I lead him with my hand still gripping his wrist. He seemed quite sad about it but the hallway wasn't the place to address that. I did stop gripping his wrist though and moved to hold his hand instead, putting him at ease from his evident body language
"Cmon. If they're local it won't take long for them to get here. So we can start when we get back." He nodded and I walked more at his slow pace, content with the fact he was going to follow me regardless "You wanna go to the shop and pick something up to drink?"
"Don't drink anymore. But we should get some sweets." I chuckled
"Yeah. Big kids. I like it." He smiled and squeezed my hand softly "I'll pay."
"Thanks."
"It's alright. Don't mind doing that for you. I like you. You're alright."

"The boys can't come over." Dom said, sitting in the kitchen counter behind me
"That's fine. More for us right?" I turned the stove off, moving the pan of meat so I could turn to him. It was down anyway so no harm caused. He seemed quite put out by the fact they couldn't come "Feeling homesick?"
"They're all still in London. I came here cus it was "home" but its not is it?"
"Do you want to go home to your mum?"
"No room for me there. Plus none of them know I even applied for uni."
"Nice surprise. I can pack this up in a container and we can reheat it all later." He shook his head
"I haven't spoken to them since me and jesse split up." His voice was quiet, cracking as he spoke "I don't even think they know I'm still alive."
"You should talk to them. I did that to my sister once and when I went back after three years she held me so fucking tight I knew she deserved to know all along. Said she thought I was dead."
"I see them on social media. I'm watching izzy grow up and my parents grow old still." He sniffled and wiped his eyes "I don't wanna talk about this anymore."
"Okay. Well foods ready but we don't have to eat right now if you don't want to." He shook his head, his tears still coming out but he desperately tried to wipe them "Okay. I'll cover it. We can have it later."
"Can...can you stay with me for a bit? Right now I...I feel like you're the only person I feel safe with." I sighed, what I said had upset him and I did feel really bad. But I also knew that they deserved to know he was okay "Kit?"
"Hmm. Yeah. Come on then. We'll go sit over there."
"I'm not too much am I?"
"No. I've been and seen "too much". You're not "too much". Come on. I think it'll do you some good to let it out."
"I don't want to talk about it anymore."
"I'm not saying talk dom. You know I'm not. But after not talking to them in years you must have a lot of feelings built up."
"Why are you making me talk about it? I just told you-"
"I know. I just don't want you to keep it inside."
"Well that's where I fucking like it." He got down off the kitchen side and started walking back to his room
"I thought-"
"Fuck off Katie." He said, slamming the door behind him. I turned around but noticed something. There, on the kitchen side, calling my name, was his phone.